A “busy” route in an archive needs a defined measure. Here we distinguish recorded sailings from reported seat sales on eligible completed records. Neither measure is a ranking of passengers carried or route popularity.
The same three complete years and endpoint definition
From 1 January 2023 through 31 December 2025, there are 62,838 records across 38 source directions. The eight below were selected by record count only. Opposite directions are separate; more records do not establish greater demand.
| Source direction | All records | Observed days | Eligible sales records | Sold / capacity | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yalova → Pendik | 11,773 | 1,096 | 11,204 | 2,920,814 / 6,036,687 | 48.4% |
| Pendik → Yalova | 11,654 | 1,096 | 11,202 | 2,930,299 / 6,038,180 | 48.5% |
| Yalova → Yenikapı | 9,338 | 1,096 | 9,210 | 3,158,697 / 5,475,777 | 57.7% |
| Yenikapı → Yalova | 9,337 | 1,096 | 9,210 | 3,101,645 / 5,474,626 | 56.7% |
| Kadıköy → Bursa | 2,682 | 1,076 | 2,397 | 607,973 / 1,038,871 | 58.5% |
| Bursa → Kadıköy | 2,578 | 1,071 | 2,311 | 557,621 / 1,002,658 | 55.6% |
| Kadıköy → Bandırma | 2,134 | 1,096 | 1,880 | 399,180 / 840,976 | 47.5% |
| Bandırma → Kadıköy | 2,133 | 1,096 | 1,869 | 380,061 / 835,996 | 45.5% |
Which records enter the sales ratio?
Of 58,022 completed records, 57,992 are eligible. Passenger capacity must be positive, reported passenger sales must be nonnegative and no greater than capacity, and primary/web cancellation labels must agree. We exclude 30 records: 20 capacity exceedances and 10 status conflicts. These two flags do not overlap in this subset.
16,005,827 reported sales / 30,528,747 capacity on the same eligible records = 52.4%. This capacity-weighted ratio is not an arithmetic mean of individual sailing percentages. Eligible records cover 1,095 dates, distinct from the 1,096 dates in the full period.
Reported sales and capacity by month
| Month | Eligible / completed | Excluded | Sold / capacity | Ratio | Eligible days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3,800 / 3,800 | 0 | 1,043,031 / 1,967,454 | 53.0% | 93 |
| February | 3,084 / 3,084 | 0 | 828,743 / 1,603,993 | 51.7% | 85 |
| March | 3,700 / 3,701 | 1 | 918,687 / 1,929,856 | 47.6% | 93 |
| April | 4,498 / 4,498 | 0 | 1,242,475 / 2,360,293 | 52.6% | 90 |
| May | 4,750 / 4,750 | 0 | 1,177,909 / 2,642,096 | 44.6% | 93 |
| June | 6,141 / 6,149 | 8 | 1,767,087 / 3,258,025 | 54.2% | 90 |
| July | 7,622 / 7,627 | 5 | 2,191,636 / 3,915,348 | 56.0% | 93 |
| August | 7,401 / 7,416 | 15 | 2,268,505 / 3,813,480 | 59.5% | 93 |
| September | 5,391 / 5,391 | 0 | 1,480,120 / 2,896,096 | 51.1% | 90 |
| October | 4,406 / 4,406 | 0 | 1,170,832 / 2,454,253 | 47.7% | 93 |
| November | 3,675 / 3,676 | 1 | 1,021,887 / 1,872,028 | 54.6% | 89 |
| December | 3,524 / 3,524 | 0 | 894,915 / 1,815,825 | 49.3% | 93 |
Route and vessel composition change by month; a larger summer ratio alone does not establish rising demand on the same route. The direction and vessel tables in the seasonal cancellation analysis describe that changing mix. There is no fixed sales observation lead time, so these values should not be read as bookings 24 hours before departure.
Classes, vehicles and duplicate legs
The first-class sales field is zero on completed 2023–2025 records and is not added to passenger sales. The full archive contains positive and negative first-class values, and whether classes overlap has not been verified. A vehicle space is not a passenger seat; we never add those fields. In this subset, 441 completed records report vehicle sales above vehicle capacity. That separate vehicle-field anomaly is disclosed; vehicle values do not enter the passenger ratio.
There are 208,801 distinct sailing IDs and the same number of distinct ID/date/endpoint keys in the archive. Technical uniqueness does not prove that every record is an independent physical journey or every sale a different person. Multi-stop names are not split into passenger legs; boarding, transfers, refunds and passenger identity cannot be verified. Totals therefore remain reported record totals only.
Why sold seats differ from actual occupancy
Sources, method and checking a sailing today
Cancellation counts use the primary status “İptal Edildi”. The cancellation-share denominator is every record in the stated group; status conflicts are disclosed separately. Missing dates do not create invented sailings. Sales tables use the separately defined eligible completed records.
Full archive methodology · Sources and attribution · Official IDO information
These are record-based summaries, not totals of physical sailings, unique passengers or weather-caused cancellations. We do not publish raw CSV/JSON files or record-level data. Verify today’s journey separately by date, direction and time.
Sources and data
İDO: official sailing and ticket information · MGM: Marmara marine forecast
Cite this page
When using this analysis, please credit Sefer İptal and link to this page. İDO supplies the sailing records; Sefer İptal prepares the explanations and calculations on this page.
Sefer İptal. IDO recorded sailings and reported seat sales: 2023–2025. 2026-09-17. https://seferiptal.com/en/guides/ido-recorded-sailings-seat-sales/